A Texas Tech sophomore is getting high praises for his invention that aims to decrease football related injuries.
Alberto Garcia is a computer engineering major at Texas Tech and has worked tirelessly for four year on a prototype that would try to eliminate the chance of getting a concussion while playing football.
It all started in high school when one of Garcia’s teachers asked him to join the science club, but challenged him to come up with an original idea for the upcoming science fair. Since Garcia played almost every sport in high school, the teacher suggested a sports themed project.
Garcia said he suffered a concussion while playing football just two weeks before.
“On a kick off return I got blindsided,” Garcia said. “I got back up I was feeling super dizzy.”
After doing some research, Garcia learned when the neck whips back and forth it causes the brain to move around inside the skull, causing bruising or concussions.
“So that is when I decided to come up with a system that would reduce not only linear impacts,” Garcia said. “Which is the impacts that happen when players crash straight on, but also rotational acceleration forces which happen, like whenever I got blindsided. Your neck just whips and it rotates very roughly and that moves your brain on the inside of your skull and so it creates bruises on the brain and that is how concussions come to be.”
Garcia came to the conclusion, if he could keep the neck from moving, it would keep the brain from bruising.